Since data from a 2018 a University of Sydney survey showed the majority of teachers (91 percent) reported administrative demands were a hindrance to their core job, many teachers today are wondering if much at all has changed.
According to findings from a more recent 2022 survey of teachers in the U.S, it seems a lot hasn’t — and that teachers needing more support and less admin to deliver quality education is a global issue.
At that time of the 2018 results of the Australian survey — billed as the largest state-wide survey of teachers conducted by University of Sydney researchers — an overwhelming majority of NSW public school teachers (89 percent) agreed their capacity to continue delivering quality education was hindered by a high workload among staff.
The 2018 survey of 18,000 primary and secondary public school teachers (commissioned by the NSW Teachers Federation) also revealed the severe and intrusive impact of data collection requirements on teachers’ core job of providing quality teaching to support student learning.
When the findings were published, lead author Dr Susan McGrath-Champ from the University of Sydney said the report marked the first time teachers were comprehensively asked about their experience of schools as places of work, as well as learning.
Dealing with datafication
“Our survey shows that in schools, teachers are confronted with the monster of datafication, or an ever-growing mountain of data and compliance requirements,” said Dr McGrath-Champ, Associate Professor in the University of Sydney Business School. “In corporate workplaces we tend to think of a heavy workload as an ever-growing mountain of paperwork. We haven’t had a wide-ranging picture of the workplace conditions for teachers until this survey.”
Dr Rachel Wilson from the University’s School of Education and Social Work co-authored the report with Senior Lecturer in the UNSW School of Education Dr Meghan Stacey, and Dr Scott Fitzgerald from Curtin University Business School.
“The complex demands on teachers’ workloads have the potential to negatively impact the quality of teaching and learning. This is a worrying trend for the future of the education system, and our country,” said Dr Wilson at the time.
Today, that “worrying trend” described by Dr Wilson is, indeed, a reality for many educators.
Over-burdened teachers do too much overtime
The 2022 U.S report — created by the independent, nonprofit, nonpartisan EdWeek Research Center and commissioned by the top-ranking, private Merrimack College, in Massachusetts — reveal that teachers still currently work an average 54 hours per week in order to meet their administrative and data collection demands.
Just under half of that time is devoted to directly teaching students.
Instead, teachers’ daily activities seem dominated by tasks that typically include getting to know students, as well as planning and engaging in teaching and learning to meet the individual needs of students.
Other frequent activities were even more diverse and dominated by administrative duties — often involving paperwork, data and reporting.
The widely-held sentiment among Australian teachers surveyed in 2018 seems just as true today, with data collection described as “increasing exponentially” and something that impedes their core job.
If Dr McGrath-Champ’s assessment of the survey findings led her to believe that the need for systemic change was urgent in 2018, the workplace the new generation of teaching graduates are set to enter seems even more problematic.
Strategies recommended by teachers
Teachers themselves recommended a range of strategies to reduce the obstruction to teaching and learning caused by excessive workloads.
These included:
- more time within the school day to be dedicated to collaboration in core, teaching-related activities like lesson planning, getting to know students and adjusting classwork for students’ individual needs
- greater professional respect would also increase their capacity to teach.
- although teachers surveyed had no issue with reasonable data collection, the volume, processes and methods were described as too time-consuming
- more specialist teacher support for students with special needs
“Rather than the piercing eye of scrutiny over every requirement, teachers would be more effective if their professional judgement was valued,” said Dr McGrath-Champ.
Will the Federal Budget’s pledge be enough?
In what may be a ‘too little, too late’ response to the mass exodus of overworked teachers, the Albanese Government has pledged an additional $25 million in the 2023 Federal Budget towards “piloting new ways to reduce teacher workloads and maximise the time they have to teach.”
Time will tell if it offers enough relief.
